Friday, October 23, 2015

Horror Thoughts ‘15—It Follows (2015) ****

It’s always a bit of a cheat
for a critic to come to a movie after both sides have had their chance at it.
As is often the case with underground hits, after an initial wave of incredible
praise for the project comes an almost equal wave of disparagement against it.
With the indie horror flick “It Follows”, initial reviews hailed it as the most
original work of horror in the past ten years or so. It has since been reduced
to “meh” is many circles. The most public of the charges against it came from
director Quentin Tarantino, who praised its originality, but accused writer/director
David Robert Mitchell of breaking his own mythology. Perhaps the greatest
praise I can give the movie is that while I watched it, all of these opinions
from others dropped from my mind and I was immersed into a narrative that I
never could have foreseen.

Mitchell seems to start
building his haunting vision from only one element—perhaps the most important
element in any horror filmmaker’s arsenal—mood. Mitchell evokes a world of lost
hope that ambles out of a world of apathy. Appropriating a score and
cinematography from some of the greatest horror franchises of the 80s,
Mitchell’s atmosphere almost makes this movie all by itself. The electronic
score by Disasterpiece is a master thesis submitted to the John Carpenter
School of Horror Soundtracks. Its repetitive nature and discordant cold
electronic sound sets the entire film in a state of unease. The slightly sepia
nature of the film’s cinematography also creates a cold florescent feel to the exasperated
proceedings contained within it.

In retrospect, I’m guessing
many people felt that these throwback features were all that really set the
movie apart from other horror being made today, but there is much more beneath
Mitchell’s unique macabre. The premise itself probably also garnered much of
the film’s initial praise. The basic idea is that there is a menacing presence
stalking someone. That presence will eventually overtake them and kill them
unless they pass it on to someone else. Sex is the vessel that passes this
curse on to a new person. Once someone new has it, they must pass it on to
someone else before it kills them and reverts back to the original person for
its victim. It’s really sublimely simple and horribly menacing.

When the film comes to its
conclusion, it leaves the audience with an emptiness. It is this emptiness that
is the cause of much of the backlash against the film. We are trained as
audiences to expect some sort of catharsis at the conclusion of a story.
Because of the nature of the threat here, which we must assume is never ending
because there will always be either a new victim who has had the curse passed
on to them or a previous victim to whom the curse has reverted, no catharsis is
possible. This might feel like an incomplete story, but it is actually right in
line with the themes of the movie.

The themes are most evident
in the scenes where the threat is not present. Much of the movie depicts its
main characters just lying around waiting. They sleep often, although it would
seem the sleep should be difficult, at least for the cursed victim. There’s
this sense of apathy in all of the character’s actions. The man who first
passes the curse on to the main character seems to have no regard for the new
victim he is creating. Who can blame him? It’s her life or his. Of course, the
fact that he knows how to pass this on means that he’s spent a good deal of
time thinking about what he’s doing, and he must work a plot that gets her to
sleep with him, which must involve getting to know her somewhat, and yet he
still doesn’t hesitate to entrap her. When she confronts him later, his only
concern is for himself.

This is a portrait of a
disenfranchised youth that has no regard for their fellow man. In close circles
of friends there is comfort, but still a surprising lack of concern for each
other’s safety in the matter. There is one scene where it is clearly
established that this entity can physically affect the world and one of the
victim’s friends is thrown by what is an invisible force to him. The victim
sees the entity as either someone they know or someone of a fairly disturbing
nature. Perhaps this is a reaction to the scenes of horror that we witness in
our own world everyday—a world filled with strangers except for those who are
very close. We do seem to wrap ourselves much closer than we used to in these
days of mass shootings and terrorist attacks on a 24-hour news cycle.

These people are self
absorbed and vain. They let the world happen rather than trying to affect it in
their own way. Thus the threat against them is something that can be seen only
by the victim. It can hurt those around the victim and the victim can even
chose who it can threaten with death, but it is only ever visible to the one
who is most concerned about themselves. Late in the film, the heroine tries to
destroy the entity with objects that surround her and many of us in our
everyday lives—electronic distractions like television sets and vanity tools
like blow dryers.

I can’t figure out just
where Tarantino believes Mitchell breaks from the mythology he’s created. He
never spells anything out. Leaving the exact nature of this entity vague is
part of the commentary he’s trying to explore. These teenagers are at that
point in life where we really start to figure out how things work, but their
apathy threatens to subvert that. They don’t know the rules of this horror plot
either. That’s refreshing in and of itself. All too often characters know
exactly what to do in situation that should just blow their minds. Figuring out
just what the rules are is all part of that transition into adulthood that
these people are entering; and these people are less equipped to figure out
those rules than any previous generation of young adults.

Anyway, Mitchell’s vagaries
lead to a couple of scenes in which the audience is not informed as to what has
happened. I think the logic of these scenes, which I will not discuss in detail
for spoiler reasons, make perfect sense. I think they are also meant to open
debate on just what occurred. But even with an open interpretation of events,
they do not betray the mythology established by Mitchell.

“It Follows” will leave you with an empty feeling at the end. You might
yearn for more shocks and frights. But in doing so it will have achieved the
exact horror it is intending to inflict, one you don’t know whether is real or
not. You will not know where this movie is going from the moment it starts. You
won’t even know when it is nearing its end. It is a cold terror Mitchell is
trying to evoke here, not one filled with the hot flashes of thoughtless shocks
and gore. It is a gnawing horror, one that will stay with you, just like its
curse if you don’t pass it on.

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About Me

Andrew D. WellsAndrew is a professionally trained actor and stage director. He was a reporter for the daily newspaper The Marshall Democrat-News. He has been critiquing film since Mr. Lucas released the first of his "Star Wars" prequels in 1999. His reviews can also be seen atMarshall Democrat-News